Sunrise in Fujairah

Posted by Kanga.

I finally got my lazy butt out of bed early and headed down to the beach to watch the Sun rise. Sunrise was supposed to be at 6:44 am. I got up at 6:15 and was in the car by 6:28. I was a little distressed to see that the sky was already light, but then remembered that the Sun is on a dimmer switch, so to speak, because the atmosphere bends light. So, I drove (probably a little too fast) across town. By the time I parked and got positioned for this photo session, the sky looked like this.

The horizon was so hazy that I thought this was going to be disappointing. Certainly, it wouldn’t be as spectacular as the photo taken by our friend a few weeks ago. Maybe I would have to do this again on a clearer day.

Then the magic began.

With an impressive finish.

It was well worth the trouble, even with the haze. I can fully understand why humans once worshipped the Sun.

If you want to see all the pictures, they are here.

Le Meridien Al Aqah

Posted by Kanga.

A recent afternoon “let’s drive somewhere and see something” turned into a drive up the coast to Le Meridien Al Aqah hotel. DaddyBird had been there before, but it was new for me.

There is a pleasant beach and grounds.

Miniature golf, anyone?

Ah, when cars were beautiful…

The view from an upper floor.

We had dinner before heading home. My pasta was very tasty and I was satisfied until I got a bite of DaddyBird’s fillet mignon. Then I realized I had made the wrong choice. So yummy!

No pictures of the food, except for the condiments in tiny jars.

Day at the Park

Posted by Kanga.

The weather has “cooled” enough that it is pleasant to be outdoors, although it can still be a little sweaty, if there is no breeze.

You never know what you might see at the park.

One source of free entertainment is watching others jet skiing. There are a couple of rental providers. One on which is “Titanic.” I’m not sure they are clear on what happened to the Titanic.

And if you are feeling a little peckish, stop by the “Sponge Bop” concession truck.

Tea, Surf, and Cat

Posted by Kanga.

We spent a pleasant evening at the Hilton with our friend, Rupert. Where we sat near the beach, drank tea, and listened to the surf. (In the spirit of full disclosure, I had hot chocolate instead of tea.)

If you look very closely at the horizon, you might see the ships and tankers lined up out there.

I dipped my toes in the Gulf of Oman for the first time. The sand here is dark, an almost chocolate brown. (I don’t know if that’s because of the actual composition of the sand or the occasional addition of crude oil.) The sand was soft and the water was cool.

There was even an affectionate kitty who wanted to be petted, until he discovered how good cheese cake tastes. Then his priorities changed. After he figured out cheese cake had run out, he decided that being petted was still good. He came by several times during the course of the evening.

Bull Butting Again

We went to Fujairah for the bull butting contest again, one last time before the heat and humidity get unbearable. The crowd was smaller and most of the spectators were gathered in the shade of the two large trees. I suspect we aren’t the only ones who will be taking a break from the sport until next winter.

I couldn’t pass up taking a picture of this grandfatherly figure. This is technically inside the arena. It is very dangerous, not just from the bulls, but from the panicked spectators who run frantically any time a bull heads into the crowd (and they do).

We spent a few minutes on the beach. The sand is dark. It is almost chocolate brown when it is wet. I resisted the urge to collect this shell and settled for a picture. Takes up so much less space that way.

There was a family near us and their daughters (approx. 10 yrs old) were swimming in the surf wearing full length dresses and head scarves. They were having a blast.

Fujairah’s known for its roundabout sculptures, large art works in the middle of roundabouts. (Previously posted pictures here) Unfortunately, these pictures were taken at dusk from a moving car, but you get the idea. The guy sitting on its leg is a nice touch.

After this it was off to Al Meshwar restaurant for great food, then a two hour drive back home dodging the dangerous drivers. A day well spent.

Palm Island

A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to go to a party at a villa on the Jumeirah Palm Island. Our friends Lara and Terry are on a one year adventure they are calling GranTourismo. They’ve combined their career as travel writers with HomeAway Holiday Rentals and are traveling around the world this year spending two weeks in each destination. Their first stop was in Dubai on the Palm, then to London, then to Marrakesh, then ???? If you like good pictures, good food, and good travel advice, you should follow their blog.

First let me say, our twitter friend Grace did a better job of documenting this party on her blog (than I am about to do). So, I recommend that you click here and read what she said and check out her pictures. Also, there is an entry by Terry detailing the food served and you can click here to read that. Extra points for those of you find us in the pictures on both the blogs.

Here are my pictures:

This is the villa on Frond E. It is a five bedroom home with a lovely kitchen, dining room, living room and den. (Five and a half bathrooms, by the way.)

This is the view toward the stem of the Palm.

This is the view toward the end of the fronds. It was atypically stormy. It didn’t actually rain, but was cool, cloudy and breezy.

There was a nearby cell phone tower disguised as a palm tree. Notice the fake dates hanging in the fake tree.

It was a beautiful evening with (in our opinion) perfect weather, good friends, and good food. We may never have another reason to go out onto the Palm, but at least we can say we’ve been there.

Fujairah

Fujairah has several roundabouts with large public art. Above, the large coffee pot and cups, below a hand holding a perfume bottle (?).

Along the beach were some rather Flintstone style trees and matching trash cans.

This is Paul and our new friend Zeyah standing on the beach. Below you can see that the water was so still and the sky so hazy that it is nearly impossible to see where the horizon is.
I fully intended to dip my toes in the Gulf of Oman, but the overwhelming bad fish smell put me off. The sand here was actual sand, not broken shells. It was very dark sand and it made the water dark, too, which made it even more uninviting.

Road Trip #1 – Hamriyah Beach

So, Paul already spilled the beans about our discovery of Hamriyah Beach, but here are my pictures. They don’t do the place justice. The water was an overwhelming color. Really amazing.

There were scads of beautiful shells on the beach. I picked up a couple just because I couldn’t resist.
This is the road along the beach.
This is the mosque by the beach.

A trip to the beach. (Accidentally)

Kanga has this week off for the end-of-Ramadan holiday, “Eid al Fitr”, so yesterday we and a couple of her co-workers took a little trip to some of the smaller northern Emirates: Sharjah, Ajman and Umm al Quwain. We saw a few museums and other sites, many only from the outside since they were closed for the holiday. It was still a fun trip and very interesting; we will have many ideas about what we want to go back and see on future trips. One of the highlights of the day was a wrong turn we took on the way from Ajman to Umm al Quwain which took us into the area of Hamriya, an area mostly dominated by industry and shipping since it is a designated “Free Zone” of Sharjah. “Dominated” is not really a very descriptive word in this case. It is a very large area with only a few industrial compounds, but even fewer homes. However as we passed through the area of the houses we noticed that we could see the Arabian Gulf nearby, so we decided to take a look since we hadn’t seen it up close yet. (Yes, the ARABIAN Gulf, NOT the ‘Persian’ Gulf. Not on this side of it at least!)
When we rounded the block going towards the water we discovered there was a lovely public beach area, and even more lovely water bordering that. Both Kanga and I took several picture with our cameras, but they really do not do the place justice! It tremendously beautiful. That water was so blue and there were so many sea shells on the beach. I haven’t seen a beach that pretty in a very long time.
If you come visit us sometime a trip there is a big must. besides being lovely it was deserted except for us! It was a pretty out of the way place so it may be relatively unpopulated anytime of the year.
Kanga took pictures of it and of other stops on our day trip that she will share as well.
Here is the address for the web album and a few of the pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/pauliancastle/TheBeachAtHamriya#

(Posted by Daddybird)